Best Route From Bangalore To Thiruvannamalai

[vijay_968]

This post is mostly about the road conditions for the above round trip. The trip was planned on Friday and the done on Sunday 09-Nov-2014. The original idea, to worship Lord Murugan at Tiruttani, was planned during Dinner on Friday. Going to T’V’Malai was hatched up as we were nearing Krishnagiri. This is the fun factor owning a Fluidic Verna Diesel. The 625km long trip consisted of three Legs. BLR to T’V’Malai (200km), T’V’Malai to Tiruttani (175km) and Tiruttani to BLR (250km).

Leg 1 : Home at Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagir i- Mathur - Uthangarai - Chengam - Tiruvannamalai.
The distance of 125km from Home to Krishnagiri was as smooth as expected; took from 5:30AM to 7:15AM. Next 110km “2-Lane, Single Carriage Way” took close to 3h 30m !! Broken Roads - Crater sized potholes - No Roads – Quickly vanishing decent Roads is correct to describe most of this stretch. Road best suited for Off-road vehicles, Buses and Trucks. For any other vehicle, if you are good at babying your car, hit this stretch during DAY time, and avoid it at night; chances of road damaging the car is very high at night (sometimes even at day time, if you fail to READ the road correctly in advance). Many a times, the decent roads just disappear totally, and there’s a level difference of 15-20cm to the soil below. A few Bolero Pickup trucks went past me doing 40-ish speeds . Most of the times I was negotiating the bad stretches around 15 kph with light breaking. However, the road conditions improved after Chengam. The entire stretch is scenic though. I guess the Granite quarrying activities are the reason for the bad situation of Roads from Krishnagiri to Chengam. Just before entering T’V’Malai, turned left to take the Giri Valam road by Car ( One is supposed to cover this 12-13km road around The Hill by foot) and then went to the Temple. Had a super satisfying Dharshan. Thank you Shivji.

Best Alt1: Bangalore - Pallikonda (near Vellore) - Adukkamparai - Kannamangalam - Polur - T’V’Malai : 280km (GMaps dist; not from my home)
2nd Best : Bangalore -Hosur-Krishnagiri-Karimangalam-Morappur-Harur-T’V’Malai : 240km (GMaps dist; not from my home)

175km long Leg 2 : Tiruvannamalai-Polur-Kannamangalam-Arcot-Arakkonam-Tiruttani.
It is a 90km long 2-Lane Single Carriage way till Arcot. I do NOT remember coming across a road hump! That IS a record. The stretch is very good. A big salute to ALL the authorities concerned. Then about 43km on NH4 till Injampakkam where you turn left. Next 40km from here to Arakkonam till Tiruttani is 2-Lane Single Carriage Way. Very decent route without any sort of trouble. From T'V'malai, it took me about 3h 30m including a delayed lunch break, which was an excellent South Indian Meals at Murugan Idli shop (near Kaveripakkam), which we felt was way tastier than Saravana Bhavan’s. Reached Tiruttani at 5PM.
Between 5PM and 6PM, it was “Abhishekam” time for Lord Murugan. Rs.100/- per head special Dharshan Ticket takes one closer to the Sanctum Sanctorium. It helped us avoid the huge rush and we started the return leg at 7.15PM.

250km long Leg 3: Tiruttani-Chithoor-Palamaner-Mulbagal-Kolar-Home at BLR.
This is a 2-Lane, Single Carriage way till somewhere near Mulbagal; then it is 4-Lane all the way to BLR. Roads are very good in this Leg, all the way to BLR; I did not encounter troublesome potholes. But, beware of the low road-shoulders. If you are not so sure where your left wheel is and/or if you have some vision related problem driving night, better drop speed when oncoming lights blind you. I saw few cars bouncing as the left wheel left the road; also keep distance from the car ahead. Moreover, you come across many vehicles piled up behind a slow moving vehicle and some funny driver trying to overtake for eternity holding up in turn those behind him. This is where one needs to know his/her car and his/her abilities correctly. Overtake using the right gear no matter what your Engine cc is. I chose the 4th gear (out of 6 gears) and could easily manage to go past even up to 6 vehicles in one go, if road is straight. I keep reading about some serious accidents and was alert alert alert, specially as Mulbagal approached. Mulbagal meets NH4 at 4-5 places and be wary of these intersections, and drop speed. No need to challenge an idiot.

As I was doing the Tiruttani-Chithoor route first time, used the services of some Sweeper Cars and kept the speed under check. There were two (two or one ?) road diversions due to construction. There’s some 4-Lane / 2-Lane / what-lane confusion as I entered Chithoor. Once I reached Palamaner, I was on familiar territory. By 10PM, stopped at Woodys just outside Kolar for Dinner. Started again at 11PM and reached residence (at north BLR) at 12:05AM on Monday early morning (had a huge grin plastered on my face in this entire stretch – family was sound asleep).

Many a times, Krishnagiri-Hosur-Bangalore return trip consumes my energy. I normally battle out for road space with all sorts of characters; even inside BLR City limit. Via Kolar, the battle was less; much less. I realised why many KSRTC Buses to Chennai go via Chithoor.

Thanks for reading. OMG, it is past midnight.

 

[gandhi]

Re: Bangalore-Thiruvannamalai-Tiruttani-BLR Travelogue (on 9th Nov 2014)

Leg 1 : Home at Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagir i- Mathur - Uthangarai - Chengam - Tiruvannamalai.
The distance of 125km from Home to Krishnagiri was as smooth as expected; took from 5:30AM to 7:15AM. Next 110km “2-Lane, Single Carriage Way” took close to 3h 30m !! Broken Roads - Crater sized potholes - No Roads – Quickly vanishing decent Roads is correct to describe most of this stretch. Road best suited for Off-road vehicles, Buses and Trucks.

I guess the Granite quarrying activities are the reason for the bad situation of Roads from Krishnagiri to Chengam.

OMG. Still this road has not come into the shape . This is not because of Granite quarrying activities. Road widening works were started almost 2 to 3 years back. I don't know when this people will complete this part of stretch .

 

[vijay_968]

Re: Bangalore-Thiruvannamalai-Tiruttani-BLR Travelogue (on 9th Nov 2014)

OMG. Still this road has not come into the shape . ... Road widening works were started almost 2 to 3 years back. I don't know when this people will complete this part of stretch .

It is been like this since 2009-10, when I took this route in my earlier Matiz; that too after dark. That was the worst driving experience I've ever had in ANY vehicle. When the road from T'V'Malai to Arcot IS spectacular, I wonder WHY the authorities are not able to repeat THAT success story in this stretch. Maybe the overloaded granite carrying trucks ARE damaging this stretch after every repair. Think about the sufferings of the elderly, pregnant women, school children, vendors, office goers etc from these areas. I feel sorry for them.

 

[vijay_968]

Bangalore to Thiruvannamalai :Best Alternate Route on 28-June-2015

Summary:

• 527km one day Bangalore-Tiruvannamalai-BLR trip.
• Onward Journey: Dep - 06:05 AM and Arr - 11:00 AM
• Return Journey: Dep - 03:00 PM and Arr - 09:30 PM
• Route Avoided: The regular route taken by TN Govt Buses is BLR-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Uthangarai-Chengam-T'V'Malai.
• Route Travelled: BLR - Krishnagiri - Karimangalam - Morappur - Harur - Thanipadi - Thandram Pattu - Tiruvannamalai. https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/V...b16e5bac856!2m2!1d79.0746957!2d12.2252841!3e0

Route Highlights: What a Route ! This is one of the best rural roads you'd come across. On top of that, this stretch is a scenic beauty going thro' a lot of greenery all the way and pass thro' some hillocks. My favourite "Boiler Tea" is available throughout the stretch. The route has some mild to average Indian Standard potholes here and there, but they didn't disturb us. For a short stretch, there's a road widening work going on; Two trucks can pass side-buy-side without problem. There are two short diversion due to bridge construction. Even a 20 Yr old M-800 could take this route without any troubles. I could cruise at 80-90 kph speeds.

Recommendation: I have traveled to/from T'V'Malai taking three different Routes in the last year; I would recommend THIS route to anyone.

Temple Timings: Though the closing time of Arunachaleswar Temple is 12:30 noon, they gave 30 minutes grace time for we foot-loosies to come out of the Main Darshan Area. Spent another 30 minutes inside the Temple.

CAUTION: If you are returning at night, better use the Maps so as to be sure which way the road curves ahead. At 3-4 places I nearly halted as I could not see the road ahead as was reaching the top of the slope. THAT was in day time.

Tid-Bits:

• B/Fast was at A2B, Chinnar. Have they hiked the rates of-late or what ? But you can save Rs.40/- thro' the Free Nitrogen.
• For lunch, had "Tomato / Curd Rice in a pretty decent eatery just outside-and-to-the left of Main Temple Entrance. Taste was very very good.
• While returning, halted at Karimangalam, for evening Snacks at a road side Bakery (a little before the Junction with 4-lane and to the left).
• Major halt was at Chennai Silks, Hosur . They didn't buy anything after 45 minutes .
• Don't miss those "Boiler Tea" shops.
• My "Data while roaming" was OFF and Google Maps ditched me. The offline Nokia HERE Maps guided me all the way thro' to T'V'Malai. Only during lunch, I recognized what was wrong with GMaps and GMaps took over. It guided me to turn right into a 20 ft wide road just half a km before Harur (Ambedkar NagartoBus Stand Rd) but instead I drove ahead and took the 1 km long route crossing the Bridge. I'm not sure if I took a one-way road.
• Harur is the largest town in this stretch with Decent eateries (Idly, Vada, Dosa, Pongal, Puri stuff). While returning, Wify bought Vegetables for the next 3 days around Harur Bus Stand.

The average Road just before T'V'Malai: The last 5km to T'V'Malai is not that good, but is way better than BLR City Roads.





The Car and the Lenses: Verna during a photo-shoot, atop a curve. The photos below are thro' the woods. What you see in the backdrop of the next two photos is a hillock. Except the last Pic, all others were taken using my Canon FD 28mm F/3.5 lens. The last was taken using the 210mm native zoom lens at 95mm near-about. Rare occasions when native lenses are used.

 

[vijayvm]

Re: Bangalore to Thiruvannamalai :Best Alternate Route on 28-June-2015

Vijay,

Thanks for sharing this. Absolutely this is the best route at this moment to travel from Bangalore to Tiruvannamalai.

Summary:
[*]Route Travelled: BLR - Krishnagiri - Karimangalam - Morappur - Harur - Thanipadi - Thandram Pattu - Tiruvannamalai.

Frequently I had used similar route to cover following places during Monthly Girivalam/Giripradakshinam on Fullmoon days.

You can use the following route to cover the places given below
1. Theerthagiri
2. Thiruvarangam
3. Tirukkovilur
4. Tiruvannamalai

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/J...dd3d46!2m2!1d77.5857168!2d12.910491!3e0?hl=en

 

[vijayvm]

Bangalore Tiruvannamalai travel experience improved with improved travel experience from Singarapettai to Tiruvannamalai. This would benefit frequent travellers from Bangalore to Tiruvannamalai, Tirukkoilur, Pondicherry, Cuddalore and other surrounding areas.

Yesterday on 27th Sep 2015, after 3 months gap, i have used "Singarapettai" to "Tiruvannamalai" section with lot of apprehension. Short observation - road condition improved and fit for use about 95%.. without any major problem.

Route review.
1. Bangalore to Barugur - 4 lane NH7 + NH 46
2. Barugur to Singarapettai - 2 lane good roads
3. Singarapettai to Chengam - only 3 bad spots (1 is really bad) but we can survive
4. Chengam to Tiruvannamalai - only 1 bad spot (just out side Chengam)

What is the difference ?
Broken tarmac at most places provided with temporary fix, such that enhanced roads are visible. of-course, you need to travel with caution as half-carriage ways, quick change maneuvers are still required.



https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/J...dd3d46!2m2!1d77.5857168!2d12.910491!3e0?hl=en

 

[vijay_968]

Oct 2018 Update : Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Uthangarai-Chengam-Thiruvannamalai

The purpose of THIS post is to explain the CURRENT road conditions in Oct 2018 between "Krishnagiri-Uthangarai-Thiruvannamalai" (currently they call it NH-77), which in general is "undivided 1+1 Lanes". Most TN govt buses from "B'lore to Thiruvannamalai" ply on this. In June 2015, I recommended "BLR - Krishnagiri - Karimangalam - Harur - Thanipadi - Thandram Pattu - Tiruvannamalai" route in my post # 4 in this thread. Since then, I had avoided NH-77. On 18th Oct, a typical "Short-Notice Trip" materialized and I took the NH-77 for "Krishnagiri-Uthangarai-Chengam-Thiruvannamalai", just to check the road conditions.

Summary of Road Conditions :
It was a PLEASANT SURPRISE In Nov 2014, it took nearly 3.5 Hrs to cover this 115 km long stretch (Leg-1 in my Post # 1 here). This time, it took 2 Hrs for the onward Trip, and 1 Hr 45 Min for the return leg. In a nutshell, the road conditions have improved superbly. Enjoy it, as long as it lasts ;-) The overloaded trucks from Granite Quarries WILL damage the roads.

Recommended Speeds :
Though 100-110 kph speeds can be maintained, I would recommend 80-ish speeds, as the locals enter the road without checking traffic and the Route has lots of typical Indian potholes . Don't get alarmed though. Summary of Potholes :

1. About 80% potholes are non-serious and I just drove over them at 70 ish speeds.
2. For the remaining, online Google Map Navigation comes handy, with its TRAFFIC update.
3. All of you already know about the BLUE Color.
4. "Orange Color in route" means slower traffic; on NH-77 it means either potholes or populated areas . These potholes are mildly serious, but zipping around them at 40-60 ish speeds is very much possible, even for a Hatchback on 13 inch wheels.
5. "RED COLOR in route" means that the Road is badly broken. Red was at about 8 to 10 places, varying in length between 30 and 100 feet. I could not spot tar road at 3-4 stretches. Crawling speed is the best option. Again, not a problem even for a Hatchback on 13 inch wheels. Years ago, my Matiz encountered damaged roads 10 times serious than these RED Spots, the first time I drove from BLR-T'V'Malai.

At 3-4 places, the orange spots occurred "just after a crest on the road". Maps helped me slow down at THE RIGHT SPOTS and those following me would have felt that I was a REGULAR on those roads. Attn: Member bhvm --- You got the answer, in above :-)

Krishnagiri-Thiruvannamalai FE Figures :
I reset the FE Counter, after Krishnagiri, but just before entering NH-77. When I reached Thiruvannamalai, Multi info Display read 16.3 kpl as Avg over 115 km. Allowed it to continue. When I came back the next day to the same intersection (at Krishnagiri), the FE Avg read as 17.6 kpl over a total distance of 245 km.

 

[CasualSurfer]

Yep, I have plied this route twice in the last 2-3 months. The only patch you need to be watchful is the Krishnagiri - Mathur. Most of the other sections are pretty easily driveable. Post Singarapettai, it is a wide 2 lane as well. The only roads worrisome are the just before / after a village. Usually the joins between expanded & unfinished sections have a height difference of 1/2-1 feet sometimes. This doesn't mean that one could carry huge speeds, better to be in 80-90kmph, not more. And extra careful whenever you see a village passby, due to the height difference in the roads, which you could easily miss.